Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1514108
15 Looking back 2023 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JANUARY 2024 Leaked chats: Rosianne Cutajar's cosy relationship with Yorgen Fenech Blogger Mark Camilleri turned the tables on Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar last March, when he published unredacted and intimate chats between her and the man indicted for masterminding the murder of Daph- ne Caruana Galizia, Yorgen Fenech. Cutajar was left with egg on her face, just 24 hours before Camilleri was due to face her in court as the defendant in a libel case filed against him by the MP. Cutajar had denied having a relationship with Fenech - a claim contradicted by the chats. The day after the chats were leaked, Cutajar's lawyers complained to the Attorney General, who immediate- ly informed the court and requested an investigation into the leaks. Within 24 hours the police had con- cluded their investigation and confirmed that Camill- eri's publication had breached a publication ban is- sued in 2021. A Criminal Court judge then ordered that Camilleri be prosecuted for contempt of court. Fatal collapse: Five charged over Jean Paul Sofia's death In July 2023, five individuals were accused of the in- voluntary homicide of young Jean Paul Sofia, who died at the age of 20 in a building collapse at a Kordin con- struction site in December 2022. Company director Matthew Schembri, 38, from Birkirkara; developer Kurt Buhagiar, 39, from Naxx- ar; architect Adriana Zammit, 35, from Zabbar; con- struction company directors Milomir Jovicevic, 39, and his wife Dijana, 39, were charged with a number of offences, which include involuntary homicide and forgery. All five accused pleaded not guilty and were granted bail under strict conditions. The charges came after a magisterial inquiry into the fatal collapse identified a number of serious workplace health and safety failings. Crime ring: Rival prostitution ring behind fatal stabbing The compilation of evidence against Ilie Constan- tin, Ionut Iulian Tanase, and Dan-Andrei Tanase, the three Romanian men accused of murdering Josef Ri- vas in December 2022, continued in 2023. Rivas died after being stabbed in Paceville. The court heard that Rivas had been part of a Romanian organised crime ring, with at least one previous murder conviction and links to a 2003 plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham. In October 2023, a joint investigation carried out by journalists from MaltaToday, RISE Romania, the OCCRP, and researchers from the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation established that the fight in which Rivas was killed traced its roots back to a Romanian family's feud about profits from a prostitution racket they were operating in Malta. Double murder: Grisly murders at Marsa stables In October, Iddirisu Faisal, 34, from Ghana, was charged with the murders of 73-year-old Joseph Bar- tolo and 56-year-old Carmen Abela, as well as the attempted murder of another woman from Nigeria. Faisal, a plasterer, was also accused of grievously in- juring the woman and slightly injuring another Nige- rian man, as well as charges relating to resisting arrest, damaging private property, disobeying lawful police orders and slightly injuring a police officer. The court was told that Faisal had been renting a converted stable at the old horse-riding school on Triq it-Tigrija, Marsa from the victims as his accom- modation. Trial postponed: Daniel Muka drops legal aid lawyer Daniel Muka, 28, was due to go on trial in October, accused of the murders of Christian Pandolfino and Ivor Maciejowski, who were shot dead inside their home in Locker Street, Sliema, on 18 August 2020. But the trial had to be postponed on the first day after the defendant refused to be represented by his legal aid lawyer. Terrorism: Group accused of sharing ISIS propaganda online Seven Syrian men were charged with disseminating extremist messages inciting and glorifying terrorism, and recruiting or attempting to encourage others to commit terrorist acts, after police broke up what they said was a suspected Islamist terror cell In April, The men were also accused of teaching others how to use explosives and firearms, and attempting to trav- el to the EU to take part in terrorist acts. Three more men with links to the first group were arrested and charged with related offences in October. Trumped up: El Hiblu three indicted on terrorism charges The Attorney General's decision to plough on and indict Ivorian and Guinean nationals Koni Tiemoko Abdoul Khader, Amara Kromah and Abdalla Bari for terrorism-related offences, despite mounting evidence indicating that the charges had been exaggerated, at- tracted the ire of international human rights advocacy groups in 2023. The defendants had been just 15, 16, and 19 years old when they were charged with hijacking the El Hiblu 1, the oil tanker that had rescued them and 108 other people fleeing Libya from the sea, in 2019. They insist they were only acting as interlocutors between the mi- grants and the crew because they were the only ones who could speak English. murder: A year of court stories